Tuesday, February 14, 2012

So you know that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, which makes Pirate's Booty, bought the building that housed the now-former Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

Last night, he went before the CB3/SLA committee and revealed his plans. (He never responded to our requests for an interview.) According to a report by Claire Nugent at Eater, the committee approved his plans to open "a new restaurant/tavern offering local, regional cuisine."

He is teaming with Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door. Per Eater:

They said they hope their restaurant will echo the restaurants that have disappeared, with a menu offering those foods New Yorkers "miss" like Shepard’s Pie and fish 'n’ chips.

Ehrlich reportedly didn't win the rights to keep the Holiday name.

Updated 11:50 a.m.

Grub Street has more. Sibley, who will manage the space, said, "We're going to try to preserve as much of the history as possible."

26 comments:

Anonymous
said...

La Palapa?? - the joint whose owners just had spectacular expansion fail on the west side?!? Yiiikes.

And it's not that fish and chips and shepherd's pie have been withheld from east villagers.....it's that east villagers as a rule do not tend to order fish and chips and shepherd's pie unless it is a vegan alterna-version.

with a menu offering those foods New Yorkers "miss" like Shepard’s Pie and fish 'n’ chips

St. Dymphna's and Lunasa have those in their menu, from authentic New York Irish pubs.

Teaming up with La Palapa could mean it'll just be an overpriced artisanal pretentious Shepard’s Pie and fish 'n’ chips catering to the tourists and B&T's. And good thing they didn't win the rights to keep the Holiday name. It'd would've been sacrilegious. Holiday is over. So is the EV.

Listen you guys have to source stuff better. La Palapa was opened by a couple of ex Telephone waiters - people who have been in the East Village way before you guys.

I like this site. I really do. But the East Village, or at least what I think you want to preserve, is not about real estate. It just isn't bars, even the Holiday, come and go. I am going to send you an example of what I mean.

starzstylista- Just about every comment you leave reeks of holier than thou, cooler than you arrogance.Why does Grieve have to source anything better ? The article isn't about LaPalapa, it's about the current owner of LaPalapa partnering up to open a new restaraunt.And you say the folks who opened LaPalapa have been here longer than "you guys". How do you know that ?You have no idea how long " you guys " have been here.Get over yourself.

The only shepherd's pie I care(d) about was the sublime vegetarian version made with spicy lentils, from Telephone (RIP). But there are other places in the hood to get fish n' chips and the like, Percy's, Queen Vic, and that place we discussed not too long ago, Gin Palace (open yet?).

I'm not sure how these dishes qualify as "local, regional cuisine," but if someone really wants to open a restaurant featuring local, disappeared dishes, may I suggest a knish bar. I am so serious! I love those things and you can't get decent ones anywhere these days.

Also, if you guys want to preserve the old East Village, the way it used to be - which frankly I think is ridiculous - I am holier than thou. We made it into something you wanted to come to. As far as I am concerned now, tear it down - there's nothing left.

Also, believe me when I say this, it is easy to tell from context who has been here how long. Really easy. I like this blog. I really do. But, on this point the tone couldn't be wronger.

starz....i think the problem here is, the ev was a place where people who were outsiders could feel at home, and had no desire to attract more people here. so for long-timers, what's happened in the past decade has been a takeover by the type of folks you used to come here to avoid....mainstreamers, jocks, frat boys and sorority girls, suburbanites and philistines. the kind of folks who used to avoid the ev.

times change, things are different. a while back, the visiting binge drinkers used to frequent a strip on the upper west side. now they come here and the les. so it goes. not exactly anything to be proud of, and certainly degrades the quality of life for people who stayed here from before, but it is what it is. just like it was what it was.

this neighborhood has changed over and over during the past century. i doubt it stops here. especially since the 'hip' factor lasts a shorter and shorter time, like every other cycle. or maybe we've already gone way beyond the hip factor into the yahoo factor. that can last a while, or end as suddenly as a couple of well-publicized crimes. ya never know.

Yes, essentially. They're doing some of the old Telephone menu (I don't know how much) & they should. It was a very durable menu.

I ate there everyday for prob. 10 years. Was it open 20 - 25? Probably didn't miss a week - although I was partial to the Trifle. God I hope they put that on the menu. Ploughman's Lunch, that would be good too.

You know I wonder if people know - Telephone was opened by Abe Lebewohl of 2nd Ave Deli. I was there on the first night - it was SO FANCY. Ha.

Exactly John. I believe we are in the Yahoo factor, maybe worse the young professional factor. I've hung in a long time, but in a couple of years I'm out. It's not fun; it's the opposite of fun. (Caleo you should be nice to old people, they have rent controlled apartments they can lay on you.)

I was telling my husband the other day as we were walking around a deserted EV at like midnight on a work night, the EV used to have the exact OPPOSITE rhythms of the rest of the city.

9 am? People going to work, EV people coming home. 5 pm? People having dinner, EV eating breakfast. Midnight? People sleeping, EV, well, drinking actually. It was fun while it lasted. It was also fun to only have to work 3 days a month to make your rent.

With places like the Holiday, people die. What can you do? What happened here was organic, nobody DID anything. It will die and live and die again. Luc Sante wrote a good article a few years ago on it.

It's OK for people to mourn places they liked, whether they have lived here 2 or 50 years.

Yes, Manhattan businesses and buildings are on an endless cycle of life and death and life and death. It's inevitable. People have been dying since the beginning of time. So I can't mourn when my father dies one of these days?

Absolutely. But, it seems, what began, 20 years ago as mourning, is now hagiography.

Not to mention, if I mourn my father, the dog, the flea from my circus, the best egg fu young, my hairline and the cancellation of America's Top Model - a certain grief fatigue sets in - the people are around eventually will respond "I am so glad that guy's yappy dog died, I can't wait to see what goes next."

Yeah, it's an interesting phenomenon, but it's been going on longer than even that. I was born in the neighborhood back in '67 and there were complaints about gentrification even back then. Some good came with the bad, and some good stuff went. Used to shuffle through Tompkins Square on my way to school every morning past the encampments and fires and when the police rolled in for what felt like forever I was out protesting like all the rest. And some good came with the bad, and some good stuff went. I was a bartender at Mona's and Sophie's for the better part of the late 80s/early 90s and there were complaints about gentrification then. The neighborhood has changed, as neighborhoods do. History doesn't let you pick and choose, and the city doesn't care if you like it or not. It's one thing to say it ain't what it was, and the money won out no question, but nobody - from Peter Stuyvesant to my hippie parents to the Yuppie Millionaires in the Felt Building - has yet been able to lay down a marker and say "THIS is where we leave it." And there's no point in all of us trying to outdo each other on how far back we can claim ownership of the place, because where do you wanna stop? Kleindeutchland? The Minuits? When I was born (not THAT long ago), the neighborhood was still known as the Lower East Side.

Guess I'm saying that all feelings are legit on this thing, I've been gone a decade now and I miss the place, I miss the smells of it. But righteous nostalgia's a tough game.

Ivan - totally great comment. I am jealous that you had hippie parents. When I moved here there were a lot, way more fun than this new crop. I did feel a little bad for the kids with the carob - it's just like chocolate! - cookies.

I wouldn't want to be in jury duty with Starzstylista. She's the type who would argue for proof beyond a reasonable doubt and a defendant's innocence even though all the facts and evidence points toward against the defendant (or vice versa), and the 11 members of the jury agree on this.

As for Ivan's comment, yes gentrification has always been and will always be part of NYC. However, this hasn't' been this bad and speedy; this past decade has been the Disneyfication of Times Square, the mallification of NYC, and the condofication and suburbanization of the EV. But you woudn't know that since you were not here and are not here to see it.

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